SEAFOOD TRACEABILITY COMPANIES FORM NEW STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP

Seafood traceability companies form new strategic partnership. Seafood traceability is vital for food safety, to prove legality, and to verify sustainability. With seafood considered the most globally traded food commodity, all three aspects are equally vital. Unfortunately, the ability to trace seafood has become increasingly difficult due to the proliferation of mis-labelling in the industry, and has raised significant public concern over the identity, safety, and sustainability of seafood consumed. For example, the volume of mis-labelled shrimp or prawns consumed is the highest of any seafood item.. Studies have shown that 20% of prawns and shrimp consumed are mis-labelled.

Los Angeles-based Sea Warden and Copenhagen-based PSQR, two traceability technology companies, have agreed to form a strategic partnership to disruptively create value for aquaculture companies with an initial focus on shrimp and prawns. Sea Warden tackles critical data gaps within the aquaculture industry by leveraging satellites, AI, and cloud computing to monitor global aquaculture activity, while EPCIS-based PSQR’s SAGA product captures data across any number of GDST-defined critical tracking events at the KDE (Key Data Element) level. Together, Sea Warden and PSQR will be able to create full end to end traceability through their complementary products beginning at the shrimp farms, most commonly found in remote locations in India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Ecuador, “The stakes are high. Mis-labelling enables the sale of illegal, unreported, and unregulated products that could not be sold otherwise, thus reducing the health of fish populations. Mis-labelling also enables the substitution of higher-value products with lower value products that are less healthy, a situation that undermines consumer purchasing behaviors aimed at supporting sustainable fisheries.” said Ron Volpe, SVP International Markets at PSQR.

“Satellite monitoring has been ground breaking for adjacent sectors: forestry and agriculture, and has great potential to increase seafood traceability down to the farm level. Annual farm audits are the status quo currently, but consumers are asking for more. Increasing traceability without over-burdening the producers can be solved through satellite monitoring. With just farm locations, we can generate Key Data Elements for 12 months (or more) of historic production activity, and this data is unbiased, and analysis ready. Not only can we help a producer identify and resolve productivity and sustainability issues; by integrating with systems like SAGA, our data can reduce risk by raising alerts on potential supply chain issues.” said Zack Dinh, Co-Founder and CEO of Sea Warden.

The combination of EPCIS based technology, GDST standards, and satellite tracking technology is unique in the traceability space. Sea Warden and PSQR are excited about the opportunity to collaborate to deliver a unique offering capable of giving consumers improved confidence that the seafood they are consuming is properly labelled.

About PSQR

PSQR is a Danish software development company that specializes in highly scalable software for storing, processing and analysing vast amounts of supply chain data. Its SAGA product empowers manufacturers, corporations, and governments across the globe with digital track and trace capabilities and the ability to tell the true story of the origin, journey, whereabouts, and consumption of products and resources across the supply chain. Annually, PSQR tracks over 20 billion items.